1. Field
Apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to an electronic component feeder, and more particularly, to an electronic component feeder and a chip mounter having the same capable of detecting whether electronic components remain in each of component feed tapes, and when it is detected that no electronic components remain, switching a component feed path such that another component feed tape can be continuously fed to a pickup position, thereby not necessitating separate work for splicing leading and trailing component feed tapes.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, chip mounters are used for mounting various electronic components on a printed circuit board (PCB).
Such a chip mounter includes a head assembly having a suction nozzle that sucks up an electronic component to transfer it to a mounting position on a PCB, and a recognition module recognizing a suction state or posture of the electronic component sucked and transferred, and an electronic component feeder stably feeding a variety of electronic components to the head assembly.
Here, the numerous electronic components are held in a component feed tape having a predetermined length at regular intervals. The component feed tape is constituted by a base tape in which the electronic components are held at regular intervals, and a cover tape attached to the base tape in order to cover the electronic components held in the base tape.
This component feed tape is wound onto a reel and manufactured into a product.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a related art electronic component feeder.
In a related art, in order to sequentially feed the same electronic components to a pickup position without stopping operation of a chip mounter, there is a demand for splicing work in which a component feed tape 1 wound onto a reel r1 is manually connected by a worker with a component feed tape 2 wound onto a reel r2.
The splicing work is a technique that sequentially feeds the electronic components to the chip mounter by splicing a trailing end of the component feed tape 1, from which the electronic components are exhausted, with a leading end of the new component feed tape 2 using a splicing medium 3 such as an adhesive tape without stopping the operation of the chip mounter.
This splicing technique of splicing these component feed tapes 1 and 2 is disclosed in Korean Patent Application No. 10-2006-0128167.
This splicing technique allows the electronic components to be sequentially fed to the chip mounter without stopping the operation of the chip mounter.
However, in order to splice the component feed tapes 1 and 2, the worker has to predict a point in time when all of the electronic components are exhausted, and then splice the trailing end of the component feed tape 1 that is being used with the leading end of the new component feed tape 2 before all the electronic components are used up at the predicted point in time.
Thus, it is difficult for the worker to accurately predict the point in time when all of the electronic components are exhausted from the component feed tape 1 in advance.
Further, in the case in which the worker fails to correctly predict the point in time when all of the electronic components are exhausted, it may be impossible for the worker to splice the component feed tapes 1 and 2 due to the shortage or excess of a spliceable length. For example, if a point in time at which too many electronic components remain is predicted as the point in time when all the electronic components are exhausted, the remaining component feed tape can be too long to be spliced with the new component feed tape 2.
Meanwhile, the splicing medium 3, such as a splicing tape, is used to splice the two component feed tapes 1 and 2. This splicing medium 3, however, is thin and small, and is thus difficult to handle.
Further, a spliced position between the component feed tapes 1 and 2 may be incorrect due to the splicing medium 3. In this case, a position to which the electronic component is fed varies, so that the electronic component is incorrectly stuck to the suction nozzle when transferred.